Many Sweetchilli fans were excited to hear that progressive and minimal duo Extrawelt were the latest special guests lined up to play the weekly night at the Civic Hotel this month. Extrawelt consists of Germany’s Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe, also known well for their other moniker Midimiliz which they use for more psy-oriented performances. These talented lads have been playing live and DJing all over the world and are known for tank-like driving bass lines, powerful drum beats and blend of menacing, droning, echoing synths. Their sound incorporates minimal, progressive and techno sounds and is specifically designed to tear venues apart. Extrawelt first struck major success in 2004 when they caught the ear of James Holden with their releases on his UK Border Community label, Soopertrack and Zu Fuss. Since then they have released on Germanys Cocoon, Traum and Kompass labels and produced remixes for the likes of Alexander Kowalski, H-Man and Fuzzion. Supporting Extrawelt in the Theatre were residents Daniel Crocetti and Carlos Zarate.

After warming up at The Argyle in the rocks, we made our way over to the Civic Hotel and arrived to find the entire venue taken over by the Sweetchilli crew. At the side entrance around the corner many people were milling around out front, however we swiftly made our way downstairs, sorted out drinks and got comfortable for the night ahead. In the basement the sound was already pouring out of the crisp sound system in the main room with Carlos Zarate laying down some solid warm up tunes. His set was amazing and packed full of groove driven bass lines, warm echoed synth lines and just quite simply unbelievable driving tunes. This atmosphere got many people to wrap up their conversation and get straight down to the sunken dance floor which was already packed even before the start of Extrawelt’s set.

Before long it was time for the special guests to kick off their short but action-packed live set. Right from the start I was totally blown away by the raw power of the minimal techno sounds they were pumping out of their live setup. Each of the tracks was tightly constructed with some great builds and tight crisp percussion. The beauty of any live set is rather than having to hear, at best, edited versions of tracks the DJ wants to fit into the set, each track was sequenced specifically engineered for ultimate dance floor annihilation. Throughout the set the sequencing was precise and their relentless looping, gradually built into a huge wall of sound whenever the lads felt like working the crowd up into a manic frenzy. They also really mangled the cut offs and resonance filters on many of the bass and synth lines creating some head caving sounds that were more than appreciated by the crowd.

I could really go on for hours, and while the set flew by so quickly, many of us wished it could have gone on for hours.The sound was dense, powerful and loud throughout and they even through in a few more melodic numbers in the second hour including one of their better known tunes Soopertrack, Fernweh, H-Man – 51 Poland Street (Extrawelts DBL-Bass Remix) and the crowd pleasing tune The Leopard. As Extrawelt wrapped up the live set to a sea of applause throughout the main room, Sweetchilli resident Daniel Crocetti kept the vibe rolling as he kicked off the closing set. He belted out some huge tunes (and even a few older tunes if my memory serves me correctly) that were lapped up by the dance floor which was still going strong at this time of morning. We stayed for a while but at some stage decided to make a move home after what was an amazing night.

Overall, Extrawelt played a pretty mind blowing live set with the dance floor of the Civic staying jam packed throughout the night. It was awesome to hear a live set like this in such an intimate small gig atmosphere. Also the venue was packed out for a majority of the night and it is great to see lesser known acts getting this sort of support in Sydney. Props really must go to Carlos Zarate who busted an unbelievable set at the start of the night with some huge big room tunes that set the tone perfectly for Extrawelt especially in the last hour. The newly renovated interior really suits Sweetchilli’s style and hopefully there will be many more nights to come at the Civic. Make sure to make time to head to the next one where locals producers Jaytech and Matt Rowan are set to deliver a huge live set, with the ITM Christmas Party the week after that. More details atwww.sweetchilli.com.au, see you at the next one!